Anbang Insurance, the massive but shadowy Chinese company that earlier this year bought a majority stake in Vancouver's Bentall Towers complex and which has been on a buying spree in Canada and the States, is now looking at retirement homes.AFP / AFP/Getty Images

Over three decades ago a silent investment in a Chilliwack retirement home allowed Abdul, Shamim and their son, Azim Jamal, to start what would become the largest chain of retirement homes in B.C., Retirement Concepts. Along the way, they became influential in the health-care industry, winning many lucrative contracts with the provincial government to provide subsidized care for seniors.

By last year, they had won annual Health Ministry contracts worth more than $86 million.

And over the decades, the Jamals, wealthy members of B.C.’s tightly knit Ismaili community, also judiciously invested in dozens of other properties across Canada and the U.S., including grocery stores, hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings and malls, and even a chicken farm.

Now, at least part of their empire, which may be valued at more than $1 billion, is being sought by Anbang Insurance, the massive but shadowy Chinese company that earlier this year bought a majority stake in Vancouver’s Bentall Towers complex and which has been on a buying spree in Canada and the States.

On Monday, a statement from Retirement Concepts acknowledged that a Canadian subsidiary of Anbang, Cedar Tree Investment Canada Inc., has offered to buy a majority interest in the company, which operates 24 retirement homes in B.C., Alberta and Quebec.

Although Retirement Concepts won’t say how large the deal is, it’s massive enough to trigger a review by the federal government’s Investment Review Division, which examines all foreign-ownership offers that exceed $600 million. The purchase, if approved, would be the first major foray into the Canadian health-care service industry by a Chinese investment firm.

Since 2004, Anbang, which has a reported US$300 billion in assets, has raised eyebrows with a spree of offers for international property and insurance assets. This is also the second time the company’s investments have come under federal scrutiny; in April 2015 Ottawa approved its plan to buy a 66-per-cent stake in the four Bentall towers in Vancouver for an estimated $660 million. But just a month later, it bought the rest of the property from the outstanding shareholders.

Retirement Concepts says it “will retain a minority stake and will continue to manage the day-to-day operations” of all its seniors’ communities, and that there will be no changes to care, policies, procedures or operating standards. Anbang officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Along with building a business model that supplies subsidized housing for seniors, the Jamals have been strong supporters of the B.C. Liberal Party. Since 2005 they have contributed more than $70,000 to the party, both individually and through several corporations, provincial election financing records show.

The B.C. government said it’s aware of the proposed deal with Anbang and that it must be approved by the federal government. It said the sale of any care facility in B.C. also results in a review by the Health Ministry or local health authority.

“This (facility) review is conducted to ensure that the purchasing company or individuals is able to meet the needs of patients and provide quality care. If the review is successful, it results in the facility receiving a licence to operate,” Kristy Anderson, a Health Ministry spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “Should the federal government approve this sale, and medical health officers grant the requested licence, we expect the change would be seamless, and that the patients residing in these facilities will continue to receive the same quality of care. ”

Spokeswoman Stéfanie Power of the federal Investment Review Division confirmed a federal review of the offer for Retirement Concepts is underway, but Power didn’t respond to questions from Postmedia on Monday about whether review parameters would include questions of financial transparency or public health impacts in B.C.

“Due to the confidentiality provisions of the Investment Canada Act, we cannot comment further on the timing of the review,” Power said.

However, Anbang’s foray into B.C.’s health-care industry is raising eyebrows.

B.C. NDP leader John Horgan said he only learned on Monday from news reports about Anbang’s application and wants to make sure the giant Chinese firm isn’t just interested in flipping or sitting on property owned by Retirement Concepts.

NDP leader John Horgan.NICK PROCAYLO /
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“It strikes me that when you have a real estate company getting into the business of taking care of our seniors that is cause for pause at the provincial level, and we will make sure that the federal government does a thorough review of the company’s intentions and how it will impact seniors in B.C.,” Horgan said.

“We have an aging population and if foreign companies that are not interested in health care are purchasing those facilities, we’d better make darn sure they have the capacity to deliver the services they are contracted for.”

Anbang has generally kept its structure out of the public, but an investigation by The New York Times earlier this year showed the company is largely owned by a core of about 100 investors from Pingyang County, China, most of whom are relatives of the chairman, Wu Xiaohui, or his wife, Zhuo Ran, the granddaughter of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Another major investor is Chen Xiaolu, the son of one of Communist China’s founding generals.

Some of the company’s takeover offers in the U.S. have been probed by regulators looking at questions of national security and financial transparency. In one case, Anbang initially withdrew its US$1.6-billion application in New York State to buy Iowa-based Fidelity & Guaranty Life after regulators “asked about ties between several shareholders with the same family names,” The Times reported.

Next to Anbang’s massive heft, the Jamal family’s investments may pale by comparison. But they’re still significant, with the retirement-home properties alone worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

A review by The Vancouver Sun and The Province shows that the assessed value of Retirement Concepts’ seniors homes is more than $380 million. That doesn’t include three properties in Alberta and Quebec, or nearly a dozen properties amounting to over 30 acres, most of them in the Lower Mainland held by the company.

It is also not clear whether the deal also includes any of the dozens of commercial and investment properties the Jamal family holds under the umbrella of Pacific Reach Properties Ltd. That company, formed by Azim Jamal and his uncle, Joe Moosa, controls more than a dozen properties in Los Angeles and Phoenix. It also owns a dozen properties in B.C., including the Westin Grand, Radisson Vancouver Airport and Sheraton Vancouver Guildford hotels. The assessed value of the B.C. properties alone approaches $100 million.

The Jamals didn’t respond to a request to clarify if the deal includes Pacific Reach Properties.

Horgan said so far, “the federal government is being quiet,” about Anbang’s plans and the public has been offered no information on a takeover that could have major public-health ramifications.

“The public should be made aware as quick as possible when a major takeover like this is happening,” Horgan said. “And the government should be as transparent as possible at both levels, federal and provincial, on what steps they plan to take to ensure the public interest is protected.”

Horgan said B.C. NDP MLAs, including housing critic David Eby and Selina Robinson, spokeswoman for seniors, will probe the ramifications of Anbang’s plans. B.C. NDP MLAs will work with federal NDP MPs from B.C. to correspond with the federal government, Horgan said.

“Our responsibility as legislators is to make sure first and foremost the public’s interest is being protected, and not the investors nor the company that’s being purchased.”

NOTE: This story was modified at 9:15 am on November 29 to correct the state location of Fidelity & Guaranty Life.

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